Legislation to protect the mentally ill and the public, including a bill — unofficially called Gabby’s Law — to better identify and respond to people in crisis, could be in trouble as state lawmakers enter final deliberations on non-budget-related bills.

Sen. Kimberly Yee, R-Phoenix, used a procedural maneuver to kill legislation to increase funding for a program that trains people to intervene when someone is suicidal or could pose harm to others. Supporters believe House Bill 2570 could prevent another shooting like the one outside Tucson that killed six people and wounded 13, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

“In my heart of hearts, I cannot figure out why they did that,” said Steele, a mental-health counselor. “Certainly they couldn’t, in any sane, rational-thinking way, want to stop one of the only things that is going through the Legislature that could make a difference in reducing violence.”

A measure that would have required teachers and health-care workers to call police if they believe someone could be dangerous has been dropped, and two other House bills that cleared committees are stalled in the Senate and awaiting action by the full chamber.

The bills were prompted, in part, by mass shootings in the U.S., including December’s elementary-school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and the 2011 Tucson-area shooting, both perpetrated by young men who struggled with mental-health problems.

Authorities released records last week showing that Jared Loughner became increasingly unhinged in the months leading up to his rampage at a Safeway north of Tucson, and while his worried parents took away his shotgun and the family car, they were unable to get him the help he needed.

As introduced, HB 2570 would have provided $500,000 to expand an existing training program at the state Department of Health Services that teaches people how to defuse potentially volatile situations and encourage others to seek mental-health treatment. It easily cleared the House 54-4 after being amended to reduce the funding to $250,000.

But the bill stalled in the Senate, where Orr and Steele won last-minute permission from Health and Human Services Committee members to add it to the panel’s final agenda. At that meeting, Yee withdrew her consent to hear the bill because she said Orr failed to produce an amendment that removed all of the funding.

“The agreement was that an amendment would be offered to remove the fiscal impact of the bill ... and the amendment wasn’t offered as it was promised,” Yee said in an interview. “I’m trying to maintain the integrity of the process.”

Orr said he learned that the bill was added to the agenda the night before the meeting and there wasn’t time to prepare an amendment. Orr said he never spoke with Yee about an amendment, but had assured Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, that he and Steele were willing to strip the funding to keep the bill moving to the Appropriations Committee.

During the hearing, Barto suggested that someone on the committee could offer a verbal amendment, which is frequently done. No one did, and Barto moved on to the next bill.

The Tucson lawmakers represent the north-side district that includes the Safeway store where Giffords and the others were shot, and the home of Loughner and his parents.

“It became part of the healing process of Tucson,” Orr said of the bill. “The people who died were our friends. This was my way of stopping what happened from ever happening again.”

Arizona launched the Mental Health First Aid program weeks after the Tucson-area shooting and has since trained more than 2,600 people how to intervene in a mental-health crisis.

Orr and Steele are hopeful that the funding will be included during budget negotiations and that it will have the backing of Gov. Jan Brewer, who told both legislators that she supports the program and touted it when she spoke March 23 at the annual meeting of the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“We need those trained Mental Health First Aiders woven into the fabric of our community, just like we have done with CPR,” the governor said. “It has to be people in every walk of life, from teachers to church leaders to friends, family and neighbors.”

Orr said he spoke with Brewer about the bill during a meeting with Republican House members backing her proposal to expand Medicaid.

Jim Dunn, executive director of NAMI Arizona, said expanding the program beyond the mental-health field to the broader community would help reduce the stigma of mental illness and better educate the public about available services.

“There needs to be an easy access. But nobody knows how to get in,” Dunn said. “I get the calls from parents: ‘Why does my loved one have to hurt themselves or somebody else just to get treatment?’ ”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said the mental-health program will be combined with other small spending bills that are collected and considered after larger budget issues are resolved.

“I’m very interested in it,” Kavanagh said. “I’ll be pushing to put it in the budget.”

Kavanagh is the sponsor of three other mental-health-related bills, one that he has withdrawn and two that still have a chance to become law.

House Bill 2618 requires all law-enforcement officers to be trained “in the recognition and handling of a person who is seriously mentally ill and potentially suicidal or violent,” as well as what’s required to arrest someone. The bill won unanimous approval in the House and in a Senate committee and awaits full Senate action.

House Bill 2158 would allow police to detain people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, even if they didn’t observe the behavior themselves. Officers would be able to take the word of witnesses, such as parents, as they do in criminal cases, to determine whether to take someone into custody.

Kavanagh said he pulled House Bill 2555 from consideration after hearing from attorneys that it could create legal problems for schools. The bill would have required counselors, teachers, professors and health-care professionals to notify police if they had “reasonable cause” to believe a client or student is a danger to themselves or others.

“They’re afraid it could create a flood of lawsuits,” Kavanagh said. “Anytime someone was in a school where somebody was violent and nobody reported them, they’ll claim that the teacher should’ve seen it and didn’t.”

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